| Llanstadwell | |
|---|---|
 Llanstadwell, Milford Haven | |
  Llanstadwell Location withinPembrokeshire | |
| Population | 905 |
| OS grid reference | SM949049 |
| Community |
|
| Principal area | |
| Country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Milford Haven |
| Postcode district | SA73 |
| Police | Dyfed-Powys |
| Fire | Mid and West Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| UK Parliament | |
| Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament | |
51°43′N4°58′W / 51.71°N 4.97°W /51.71; -4.97  Map of the community | |
Llanstadwell (Welsh:Llanudwal) is a small village,parish andcommunity in southPembrokeshire, Wales.
Llanstadwell lies on the north bank of theRiver Cleddau (Milford Haven Waterway) betweenMilford Haven (west) andNeyland (east). The parish ofRosemarket lies to the north.[1]
The community of Llanstadwell includes the settlements ofWaterston,Hazelbeach,[1]Mascle Bridge (or Mastlebridge),[2]Scoveston,Jordanston,[3] and the western part ofHoneyborough[1] (formerly known as Little Honeyborough[4]).
TheA477 road crosses the north of the parish.[1]
The population as of the2011 UK Census was 905.
Llan - Stadwell:[5] the prefix 'Llan' approximates the word 'land'; the suffix 'stadwell' derives from the dedication of the parish and church to StTudwal, a 6th-century Breton monk.
Among the ancient British sites within the present-day parish,[6] are the remnants of a Bronze age roundhouse found in 2004 in Newton during a preventive archaeological excavation ahead of the construction of gas storage tanks adjacent to an old oil refinery; two radiocarbon dates on charred material from the roundhouse postsholes gave1140-920 BC and1450-1300 BC.[7]The most spectacular find from the Bronze age is that of the Llanstadwell Celtic chariot burial and settlement.
In 2018,detectorist Mike Smith found the first remnants of a Celticchariot burial in some farmland near the village ofWaterston in 2018. As of 2024, this is the only chariot burial found in southern Britain.[8][9]It provides important informations about the poorly knownDemetaepeople, the Iron Age tribe that occupied this region in the pre-Roman and Roman period.[10]
The grave was at the centre of a circular burial monument covered by a soil mound. A first group of artefacts — including fragments of the harness set — was declared a treasure the following year 2019. In March 2019, archaeological surveys and a major excavation of the chariot grave were executed by staff and volunteers led byDyfed Archaeological Trust, with the participation ofNational Museum Wales,Cadw (Welsh equivalent ofEnglish Heritage), PLANED andPembrokeshire College. A second collection of chariot fittings and grave goods was recovered, which was declared treasure on June 23, 2022, by HM Coroner for Pembrokeshire, Paul Bennett. The items of that second lot consist of irontires and associated iron and bronzewheel hub fittings of a two-wheeled chariot, parts of bridle-bits and leather harness fittings, a complete iron sword[10] with a segmented horn handle and that had been encased in a wooden sheath,[11] fragments from two or three spears (suggesting the sepulture of a chief warrior), and some evidence indicating that the body had been laid out on the fighting platform of the chariot — the acidic soil having destroyed the bones of the burial.[10]
The items are dated to the second half of the first century AD, a period when western Britain fought theinvading Roman army.[10]
The discovery of this burial mound has led to that of a previously unknown Iron Age promontory fort, also discovered during the archaeological investigations at the site and its surrounding area:[10] the tomb is immediately outside the entrance of themultivallate fort[12]with five lines of ditches andramparts determined as of 2022.[11]To the west of the chariot burial mound arec. 12 ring-ditches.[12]
See alsoWales in the Roman Era.
The above-mentioned preventive archaeological excavation for gas storage tanks in Newton has revealed charred grain from corn driers, radiocarbon dated to the 8th-10th century; some pottery dated from the12th-13th century, including a glazed ridge tile that may indicate a building of some status although no trace of that construction has been found; and remnants of a house and a round stone-builtdovecote from the16th century.[7][13]
Llanstadwell was in thecantref of Rhos and became in the16th century theHundred ofRoose.[6]
The parish appears on a 1578 parish map of Pembrokeshire.[14]
The administrative parish of Llanstadwell originally included Neyland, which had grown enough by the start of the 20th century to have its own council. The ecclesiastical parish of Llanstadwell still includes Neyland, whose St Clement's Church is a daughter church to Llanstadwell.[15]
In Newton, on the site of the above-mentioned 16th-century house and dovecote, a farmstead was built probably dating to the early 19th century; hardly any of it has survived, as it was demolished in the 1960s during construction of the oil refinery.[7]
Scoveston Fort was built from 1861 to 1864.
DuringWorld War I a line of trenches ran to the north of the Haven, from Port Lion,Llangwm to Newton Point, Llanstadwell.[16]
The parish of Llanstadwell extends from the shore of the Cleddau as far north asRosemarket and is largely rural with a few scattered hamlets.[17] The parish church is dedicated to St Tudwal, and the area includes other places of worship at Little Honeyborough, Neyland (four chapels and a Roman Catholic church) and Waterston.[6]
St Tudwal's is believed to date from the 12th century, and the bells from 1684, but much of the present church is mid-19th century.
St Tudwal's Church established a music festival in 2013.[18][19]
The community has acommunity council and is part of the Neyland West Electoral ward of Pembrokeshire County Council. The community includes the settlements of Hazelbeach, Mascle Bridge (or Mastlebridge), Jordanston,Waterston and Little Honeyborough.[20]
